Voter Guide: Stephanie Taylor-Thompson

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Interview Transcript:
Reporter: What inspired you to run for office?
Tyler-Thompson: I love Idaho Falls. I am born and raised here. My family is born and raised here. I have dedicated over a decade of my life to serving this community. Whether that be through volunteerism efforts, serving on boards, or just helping my neighbors and local residents. This is a community that I'm deeply passionate about. And I feel like there's just opportunity just to keep doing better.

Reporter: What would you like to accomplish or change if elected?

Tyler-Thompson: I would love to see more communication between the residents and local government. What I've learned through this campaign is that there's a lot of our residents that don't feel heard, and surprisingly, a lot of them don't understand that they can attend council meetings. So I would love to be, someone who not only attends but helps plan community forums, town hall events, community conversations, and really having a unique, unique approach to ensuring ever every resident's bills. You know, every resident feels heard and that they have a voice and that policy isn't just happening to them.

Reporter:
How would you like to go about maintaining or possibly creating a relationship with citizens?

Tyler-Thompson :
Again, that goes back to open communication transparency. I, a leader that listens first and then leads. You really can. And you need. I'm a leader that shows up. You can pretend to care, but you can't pretend to show up. So I want to ensure that that relationship with the residents, is strong. It's built on relationships, and and they know that there's a presence there. Utilizing the tools that we already have, such as social media, our online presence, and then again, ensuring that there's connection to community forums, town halls.

Reporter: How are you feeling about your campaign so far?

Tyler-Thompson: I'm feeling great about it. It has been such a an amazing opportunity. I mean, what a great opportunity to learn and grow. I've just been so grateful for the support that I've received and the opportunity to meet so many residents that I. That I didn't already know and just hear all the different perspectives. The praises that we have in our city, there's so many of them and then some of the challenges that we're experiencing. So, I'm deeply grateful for the support for the endorsements that I've received from numerous, numerous people, including the Idaho Falls Fraternal Order of Police and the Idaho Falls Firefighters PAC.

Reporter: Anything else you'd like to address or bring up or.

Tyler-Thompson: I just want to thank the Idaho Falls residents and let them know, to show up, you know, continue to, be involved in this community we live in. We are just so one. It's just such a wonderful place to live. And you matter. Your voice matters. And I want to be a leader that not only inspires, but makes you feel empowered. I feel that when people feel empowered, they learn to advocate for themselves. And when they learn to advocate them for themselves, they learn to advocate for others. So I would just encourage the residents of Idaho Falls to empower themselves, and let's make great change in this community.

Reporter: One thing, I'm just going to bring this up, but you didn't talk about growth or much about growth. I didn't know if you had a stance on that or anything.

Tyler-Thompson: Yeah. Growth is I mean, it's it's it's happening in our community. It's going to happen. And it's I don't think growth is necessarily a bad thing. If we are taking a proactive, thoughtful approach to it and making sure that the residents are at the forefront of this and that, again, policy isn't a surprise to them that that they're included in this. I think that's how we can all work with growth in Idaho Falls.